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Sony's PlayStation Network woes continue, with the company's own password reset system - a mandatory step in getting back online after Sony restored PSN services at the weekend - turning out to be a loophole for account theft. Resetting a password required just a PSN account email and the user's date of birth, Nyleveia spotted: two elements that were among the data stolen in the original hack back in April.

We have had a lot of news over the past 23 days about the hack and closure of Sony's PlayStation Network, but there are still a lot of questions over what exactly happened. Sony said in its letter to Congress that the attack was a “very carefully planned, very professional, highly sophisticated criminal cyber attack”. And it certainly has set Sony back on its heels, with the network still down, and Sony still struggling to clean up the mess the hack has caused, and losing the trust of its users. Now, a letter sent from Sony to publishers of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity yesterday has been leaked, and we have a few more details about what happened.

Friday saw the arrest of an 18-year-old man in the UK for his involvement in the hackings that took down both the PlayStation and Xbox online gaming networks for several days last month starting on Christmas. The incident saw a number of headlines after the holiday, as gamers were unable to get online for an increasingly frustrating period of time, and hacking group Lizard Squad claimed responsibility. The unnamed teen was arrested by police near the city of Liverpool on suspicion of not only hacking, but also "swatting."

Sony is hoping to pacify PlayStation gamers frustrated by the PSN downtime over the holidays, apologizing for the gaming network being offline, and offering free service and cheaper games as a mea culpa. Having seen the PlayStation Network brought down by hacking group Lizard Squad on Christmas Day, and then taken several days to bring it back to life afterwards, Sony is automatically adding five days of PlayStation Plus service to all subscribers or trial users impacted on December 25th. Meanwhile, there'll be a discount on games sometime this month, though it's unclear whether PS3 and PS4 owners will be suitably placated by it.

A Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack is something that can have a ripple effect throughout the Internet, and typically not a good one. On Christmas Day, we saw both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live go down — and with regard to the PSN, down hard. That was all a ‘marketing scheme’ according to the group claiming responsibility for it. "Just how is a DDoS a marketing ploy?", you might ask. As it turns out, the hacker crew behind the attacks are now selling their DDoS services.

After three days of downtime, millions of frustrated PlayStation owners, and quite probably a fair few tantrums on Christmas morning, Sony's PlayStation Network has finally been restored. The online gaming service had been offline since December 25th, the victim of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), as servers were hammered by web traffic and legitimate gamers were unable to connect for multiplayer titles and more. However, while Microsoft moved relatively quickly to bring Xbox Live back to life, restoring the majority of its services by the following day, Sony's fix was nowhere in sight.

This morning it was made clear that Sony was having trouble with their PlayStation Network. Meanwhile Microsoft was having trouble keeping Xbox Live online - and the hacker group Lizard Squad claimed responsibility. According to reports throughout the day, it would appear that the Xbox Live system had largely repaired problems by around 10AM Central Time - with another spike near 2PM Central Time - with uptime returning again here closer to 5PM Central Time. Sony's PlayStation Network saw problems from around midnight until 10AM Central Time, and again over the past several hours leading up to 5PM Central Time.

The aftermath of the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live hacks continues, with PlayStation gamers in particular finding the PSN remains offline with no end in sight. The result of two DDoS attacks over Christmas by a group calling itself Lizard Squad, the downtime put a dampener on those who received new consoles or games for their existing Xbox One or PS4 over the holidays, with the multiplayer support - among other things - offline. Microsoft has managed to bring much of its services back to life, but Sony is still struggling to return the PSN to normal.

The holidays are usually a time for family, fun, and relaxation, and some use the opportunity to plop down on their couches or most comfy chairs to get a decent amount of gaming done. Sadly, many of those very eager gamers have been met only with heartbreak as both PlayStation Network and Xbox Live services went down for the count on Christmas day. And while Sony and Microsoft have yet to formally acknowledge the causes, a group of hackers was only too happy to take credit for it.

This week a North Korean diplomat denied the hacker attack suspected of being launched by Pyongyang late last month. North Korea has been a primary suspect for the attack since it was launched. Before the attack, North Korean government officials denounced the Sony-made film "The Interview" on grounds that it made light of a proposed assassination of their leader, Kim Jong-Un. An anonymous source has come forth to suggest that United States National Security still considers North Korea a primary suspect in this matter.